𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

When Keir Starmer made his first trip to visit Donald Trump in the White House, many observers were surprised that this unlikeliest of duos got along so well. There was flattery, self-aggrandisement, and the famous letter from the King moment.

The trip had been planned to a tee, and resulted in Trump imposing the lowest rate of tariffs on Britain – throwing taxpayers and businesses a welcome lifeline. But despite all of the glowing reviews of his performance, Sir Keir’s visit to Washington felt more like another infamous trip across the Atlantic – and much like the Titanic’s grand and opulent first few days at sea, Starmer was always heading for an iceberg.

Donald Trump is unfailingly kind to most Western allies when they first meet. With British premiers, this is doubly so, on the grounds that Trump loves Britain, Scotland and the Royal Family.

But many commentators failed to remember that Theresa May’s relationship started out equally well before nosediving spectacularly.

In 2017, newspapers described their meeting in January as a “love-in”, adding that the Special Relationship had “never been stronger”.

But by 2018, Trump was openly branding May as “in turmoil” after losing faith in her Brexit negotiating skills. By 2019, he’d upped the criticism to “a disaster”.

Unfortunately, it seems that Keir Starmer’s No 10 operation had equally short memories, and much like their handling of domestic political issues, got high on their own supply, buying their own spin about how strong the relationship was.

In reality, it was a house built on sand, and it was a matter of when – not if – Starmer and Trump came to blows.

Despite some confusion about why the pair initially hit it off so well, again, this was obvious: Donald Trump likes two qualities in men above all others.

The ability to win, which Sir Keir had amply demonstrated with his 2024 landslide majority, and the ability to defeat when negotiating a deal.

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Starmer tried pulling the wool over Trump’s eyes on the Chagos Islands deal, pretending it was both necessary and sensible.

We all knew it was neither, but clearly the White House failed to grasp the truth of the terrible surrender until much more recently. That’s now backfired massively.

Already, the issue appears to be threatening a complete breakdown in the Downing Street-White House relationship.

But then we moved onto a new stage of Downing Street delusion this week, with Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper actively blocking the US from using Diego Garcia as a base to launch its planned strike on Iran.

I don’t know who Keir Starmer thinks he’s kidding. If Trump feels he can no longer have a productive, co-operative relationship with the UK, and a Prime Minister now so weak he’s having to give succour to his Left-wing backbenchers who detest the blonde bombshell commander-in-chief, I suspect he will end up being far nastier about Starmer than he ever was about Theresa May.

Trump has seen off a lot of British prime ministers, and given the current crisis for Labour, it’s more than likely he’ll be waving goodbye to yet another very soon.